Dick Armey suggests DeMint for 2012

South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint is on former House majority leader Dick Armey’s list of Republicans he could support for president in 2012.

Asked during a panel discussion Friday night on the Tea Party movement to name several leaders he would like to see challenge President Obama, he also listed Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

“There’s no shortage of good people,” said Armey, the chairman of FreedomWorks, a free-market group helping to organize this weekend’s Tea Party 9/12 Taxpayer March on Washington.

Armey also suggested that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is not his ideal candidate in 2012. “There’s nobody from Alaska on my list,” he said.

He did, however, go on to say that he’d prefer Palin as president to the White House’s current occupant.

His comments came during a discussion titled “Examining the Tea Party” at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. with The Daily Caller’s Tucker Carlson, the New York Times’ Kate Zernike and Harvard professor Jill Lepore.